10 Personality Disorders Many of Us Aren’t Aware Of

Personality disorders are a kind of mental disorders that affect how people manage their emotions, behavior and relationships. Personality disorders can be diagnosed 40%-60% of the time, and they are characterized by an enduring collection of behavioral patterns often associated with considerable personal, social, and occupational disruption.

This behavior can result in maladaptive coping skills and may lead to personal problems that induce extreme anxiety, distress, or depression.

The concept of personality disorders itself is much more recent and tentatively dates back to psychiatrist Philippe Pinel’s 1801 description of manie sans délire, a condition which he characterized as outbursts of rage and violence (manie) in the absence of any symptoms of psychosis such as delusions and hallucination.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Revision (DSM-5), there are ten types of personality disorders and they can be grouped or clustered into three.[1]

Cluster A (Odd, bizarre, eccentric)

Paranoid PD, Schizoid PD, Schizotypal PD

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Cluster B (Dramatic, erratic)

Antisocial PD, Borderline PD, Histrionic PD, Narcissistic PD

Cluster C (Anxious, fearful)

Avoidant PD, Dependent PD, Obsessive-compulsive PD.

Below are the explanation of the ten types of personality disorder and signs.[2]

1. Paranoid personality disorder

The patient is always guarded and constantly on the lookout for suspicious acts. The individual is overly sensitive to rejection and easily feels down. They may feel shame and humiliation, and they can even hold grudges. Withdrawal from others is common, and it is difficult for them to build close relationships since they can easily blame others for mistakes.

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Signs:

Distrust of others

Sensitive to people’s reaction

Ability to bear grudges for a long time

2. Schizoid personality disorder

Schizoid designates a natural tendency to direct attention toward one’s inner life and away from the external world. A competing theory about people with schizoid PD is that they are in fact highly sensitive with a rich inner life: they experience a deep longing for intimacy but find initiating and maintaining close relationships too difficult. Therefore, they retreat into their inner world. People with schizoid PD rarely require any medical attention and are resistant to building close relationships.

Signs:

Staying away from friendly people around them

Lack emotional response

Lack sense of humor

3. Borderline personality disorder

It was given this name because it was thought to lie between the borderline of anxiety and psychotic disorder. Emotional instability, outburst of anger when criticized, suicidal threats and acts of self-harm are common. The person essentially lacks a sense of self, and as a result, experiences feelings of emptiness and fears of abandonment.

Signs:

Unpredictable as they can harm incautiously

They are manipulative

They are unstable

4. Schizotypal disorder

People with schizotypal personality disorder are often described as odd or eccentric. They usually have few, if any, close relationships. People with schizotypal PD have a higher than average probability of developing schizophrenia, and the condition used to be called ‘latent schizophrenia.’

5. Histrionic personality disorder

People with this see themselves as attractive and charming. They are constantly seeking others’ attention and tend to overreact. They do not have a sense of self-worth, and they depend entirely on themselves to gain the approval of others.

Signs:

Attracts attention

Tend to seduce

Seek to influence others’ reactions

6. Narcissistic personality disorder

People with this disorder have a sense of self-importance and require some form of admiration. They believe they are superior and therefore have no regard for others’ feelings. They lack empathy and exploit others in order to become successful. To others, this individual may seem self-absorbed, controlling, intolerant, selfish, or insensitive. They may become violent when ridiculed or criticized.

Signs:

Feels superior

They are arrogant

7. Anankastic personality disorder

A person with anankastic personality disorder is typically doubting and cautious, rigid and controlling, and humorless. Anxiety arises when this person experiences a lack of control over situations beyond his or her understanding.

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Signs:

Believes they are perfect

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

8. Avoidant personality disorder

This individual has low self-esteem and is constantly having the fear of being embarrassed, criticized, or rejected. They are awkward and avoid meeting people due to fear of being disliked. Research suggests that people with avoidant PD excessively monitor internal reactions, both their own and of others. This prevents them from engaging naturally or fluently in social situations.

Signs:

Low self esteem

Fear of failure

9. Antisocial personality disorder

People with this disorder always act without considering others’ perspectives. Antisocial personality disorder is much more common in men than in women, and it is characterized by a lack of concern for others’ feelings. This person disregards social rules and obligations, is irritable and aggressive, acts impulsively, and never feels remorse or guilt.

Signs:

Disrespects others’ decisions

Believes they are the only ones who are right

Absence of societal norms

10. Dependent personality disorder

This is characterized by a lack of self-confidence and an excessive need to be looked after. The person needs a lot of help in making everyday decisions and surrenders important life decisions to care for others. This individual fears isolation and can never be found alone.

8 Powerful Reasons to Love Your Enemies

We’ve all got our enemies; people who take pleasure in causing us pain and misery. Sometimes, the development of an enemy is due to certain differences in your characters and events have led to that. Other times, some people end up hating you for apparently no reason at all.

Regardless of how you got this enemy, as opposed to the paradigm of fighting fire with fire, consider the following reasons and see why you should actually appreciate your enemies. This article will show you not only how to not be bothered by your enemies, but how to actually foster love for them.

Read on to learn the secret.

1. It’s a practical lesson in anger management

To be honest, your enemies are the best people to help you understand your sense of anger management. When it might be true that your enemies have a way of bringing out the worst in you as regards anger, it is also true that they can help you in your quest to have that anger managed. You can’t get truly angry at someone you love and it is only in that time when you get truly annoyed that you learn how to manage it.

Your enemies are like the therapists who you need, but actually don’t want. Inasmuch as you might want to hate them, they provide you an opportunity to control the anger impulse that you have.

2. It’s an opportunity for healthy competition

You might not know it, but your enemies make for great rivals as they help harness the competitor in you (sometimes, you might not even know or bee conversant with this competitive side until you come across an adversary). You get the right motivation to compete and this can go a long way to spur you to victory.

However, while doing so, it is also essential that you remember not to become a worse version of yourself while competing. Working against an adversary is tricky, and you need to ensure that you don’t cause harm to yourself or your morals in the process. Healthy competition is all you need to get out of this.

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3. Their negative comments can help you make a breakthrough

It is true that your enemies never really have much good to say about you. However, in as much as they might be talking out of a place of hate, there might be some truth to what they’re saying.

To wit, whenever you hear something mean or nasty from an enemy, you might want to take a step back and evaluate yourself. There is a chance that what this enemy is saying is true and coming to face that fact is a major step in helping you to become a better person overall. This is another testament to the fact that enemies can be therapists in their own way.

4. Enemies can also be powerful allies

Loving your enemies can also mean making an effort to interact and make peace with them. In the end, if you are able to establish some common ground and patch things up, you’ll have succeeded in making another friend. And who doesn’t need friends?

This can also help you in working with people in the long run. You get to hone your inter-personal skills, and that can be a big plus to your ledger.

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5. It gives you the ability to realize positivity

In a multitude of negativity, a speck of positivity always seems to find its way through.

Sometimes, a knowledge of the fact that you have enemies will also help you to focus on the many positives and good things that are in your life. A lot of times, we neglect what really matters in life. This can be due to being overly concerned with the enemies we have.

However, it is also possible for this acknowledgement to spur you to take a step back and appreciate the goo things (and people who surround you).

6. There might just be a misunderstanding

Sometimes, the reason why you have an enemy might be something very innocuous. You might not have known the cause of this fractured relationship and your enemy will help complete the picture.

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Simply approaching them will help you to understand the reason for the fracture. This, in turn, can help you to work towards healing your relationship moving forward. Misunderstandings happen, and you need to be able to work around them.

7. You learn to appreciate love as well

A constant reminder of the fact that there are enemies will also help you not to take those who love you for granted. Love and hate are two opposing emotions and it is possible for one to momentarily overshadow the other.

However, while you’ll always have enemies, there will also always be people who love you. These people need to be appreciated for what they do for you. Never let the hate projected to you from your enemies take the place of that.

8. Do you really need the hate?

The truth is that enemies bring only toxic emotions and generate bad reactions from you. If you’re truly to live a prosperous life, you can’t really be carrying all this baggage around.

Hate is bad and you should try all you can to get rid of it. It is a well-known fact that nobody can get really far in life while carrying a lot of emotional baggage. Well, hate is the biggest form of emotional baggage there is.